Viewing page 10 of 131

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

                            -2-
Personal History

I have been flying since 1933, During that year I was travelling in Switzerland with my father, who was very modern and interested in everything new. He shared my opinion that flying was wonderful, and believed that it was important for China that all who could should learn to fly. I was seventeen years old then, when I began to take lessons in flying in [[strikethrough]] Switzerland [[/strikethrough]] Geneva, while I was going to Schoo.

Before that, from 14 to 16, I acted in the movies- the silent pictures in China, which were usually based on old Chinese legends. I had the part of the heroine in "Mulan", the story of the Chinese Joan of Arc. My father's influence was very strong here too, as he was one of the first movie producers in China.

After that I used to hear about all the fine schools of aviation here in America and longed to pay a visit to this country. At last I was able to do so, and in 1933 I arrived in Oakland, California to study at the Boeing School of Aeronautics. I got my flying license there and then went back to China, but not before I also learned to speak some English. I learned to speak this first a little in England, where I had also had some schooling.

I was the first girl to win a pilot's license from the Chinese government, which made me very proud. Then I flew all over China to interest people in aviation. I was appointed instructor in aviation at China's only school of flying- the Shanghai Municipal Air school.